1. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution

2. Cultural Revolution and the study of non-democratic regimes
Lack of institutional checks on political authority readily allows extreme policies
Lack of institutionalized mechanisms to address policy debates, leadership transitions, and mass participation in politics can lead to violence, instability
Risks of violating separation of civilian and military leadership
Undermines military professionalism
Increases threat of military coup
Demonstration of interplay between domestic politics and foreign policy

3. How did Cultural Revolution (1966-76) Proceed?
Early 1960s: Prelude
Mao increasingly concerned about “revisionism”
Mao supports series of campaigns to reassert Maoist values and priorities
1966: CCP Central Committee “16-point Decision”
launches mass struggle “to topple those in power who are taking the capitalist road”
: Mass Phase
unleashing of students and masses against CCP
“Conservative” and “Radical” Red Guards
Ended by sending million youth to rural areas
: Civil-Military Conflict
struggle between PLA and CCP
Soviet threat: “Brezhnev Doctrine”
: Party Conflict
US-China rapproachment: Shanghai Communique 1972
struggle for dominance within CCP

4. Prelude to the Cultural Revolution
factors shaping Mao’s thinking
“revisionism” in Soviet Union
conflict over correct socialist path
“revisionism” in China
“capitalist tendencies”
question of succession to Mao
dissatisfaction with Liu Shaoqi
 Mao is worried about his legacy

5. Prelude to the Cultural Revolution
Series of campaigns to reassert Maoist values and priorities
Socialist Education Movement,
revive commune system in agriculture
Learn from the PLA under Minister of Defense Lin Biao, 1963
“red” (Cult of Mao—”Little Red Book”) and expert (nukes)
Other campaigns in health, education, and culture
Health: ex—doctors to the countryside
Education: ex—integrating manual labor into curriculum
Culture: Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan
 Mao perceived that these campaigns failed because of obstructionism by Communist party apparatus

7. Primary Source Discussion: Sixteen-Point Decision August 1966
What is the goal of the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution”?
Who is intended to carry out this revolution?
Who is expected to resist?
Is there evidence of a power struggle? Policy struggle?
What is significant about the approach to policy or personnel change in terms of organizational politics?

8. Primary Source Discussion: Sixteen-Point Decision August 1966
What is the goal of the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution”?
“to topple those in power taking the capitalist road”
To attack “4 olds” (customs, habits, culture, thinking)
Who is intended to carry out this revolution?
“the broad sectors of workers, peasants, soldiers…”
Who is expected to resist?
those in the Party “taking the capitalist road”
Is there evidence of a power struggle? Policy struggle?
What is significant about the approach to policy or personnel change in terms of organizational politics?

9. What was the Cultural Revolution all about?
At the elite level
power struggle over succession to Mao
i.e., who would shape the future?
struggle over correct vision/policies
i.e., what would the future look like?

10. Cultural Revolution Poster
"Revolutionary factions of the proletariat, unite and arise. Struggle against the power of the black Tianjin Communist Party Committee." Proclaimed by the United Revolutionary Rebel Committee of Artists and Writers, 1967

11. Battle Lines Drawn: Overview of the Political Spectrum as of 1969 Mao
Radicals in
Cult Rev Group
PLA
Surviving Moderates
Ousted Moderates
Mao’s secretary
Chen Boda
Lin Biao ∕
Zhou Enlai
Liu Shaoqi* (d. 1969)
Jiang Qing
Deng Xiaoping*
Kang Sheng
Trained by NKVD
Chen Yun
Zhang Chunqiao
Shanghai cult apparat
Others
Yao Wenyuan
Shanghai lit crit
*1967 house arrest

12. What was the Cultural Revolution all about? Mass Phase
At the mass level
“Conservative (Scarlet)”
and “Radical” Red Guards
opportunity for people to challenge
social and economic cleavages
created by the socialist system in China

13. What was the Cultural Revolution all about? Mass Phase
Why so violent?
Politics as only channel for social mobility
Only opportunity to express discontent
Mao’s charisma
Transcendent mission of revolution
Ends used to justify means 13

14. Review: How did Cultural Revolution (1966-76) Proceed?
: Mass Phase
unleashing of students and masses against CCP
“Conservative” and “Radical” Red Guards
Collapse of party organization in some places
Phase ended by sending youth to rural areas
Mao: Red Guards had “failed him.”
12-18 million sent to countryside by 1971 14

16. Exercise of Power: 3-in-1 revolutionary committees
Address collapse of party authority
Restore order, restore production, govern
1: PLA (army)
2: CCP (“uncorrupted” party cadres)
3: Representatives of “the masses”

17. Exercise of Power: 3-in-1 revolutionary committees
PLA itself being drawn into conflict
Local commanders closer to CCP
Risk of splitting military—civil war? 17

18. Review: How did Cultural Revolution (1966-76) Proceed?
: Civil-Military Conflict
Struggle between PLA and CCP
CCP
Seeks to rebuild itself
Seeks to reassert primary of party over army
Soviet threat: “Brezhnev Doctrine”
PLA, Lin Biao
Dual threats from US, USSR
Aggrandizes PLA
Talks with Kissinger (1971)
PRC UN seat (1971) 18

19. Review: How did Cultural Revolution (1966-76) Proceed?
: Party Conflict Phase
US-China rapproachment
Shanghai Communique (1972)
Struggle for dominance within CCP 19

20. Conflict over Policy: Radical Maoist Vision for China
“Socialist new born things”
education health
industry culture
agriculture party affairs
Learn from Daqing (industry)
Learn from Dazhai (agriculture)
May 7th Cadre Schools (party affairs)

21. Conflict over Policy: Moderate Vision for China
“Four Modernizations” (January 1975)
Agriculture
Industry
Defense
Science and technology
Restore material incentives
Introduce foreign technology
Emphasize expertise
Increase managerial authority 21

22. Overview of the Political Spectrum as of 1969 (
Overview of the Political Spectrum as of 1969 (* = in Gang of Four, arrested 1976) Mao (d. 1976)
Radicals in
Cult Rev Group
PLA
Surviving Moderates
Ousted Moderates
Chen Boda
Lin Biao (d.1971)
Zhou Enlai (d. 1976)
Liu Shaoqi (d. 1969)
Jiang Qing*
Deng Xiaoping
(V.Ch MAC’75)
Mao brought back to reorganize PLA
Kang Sheng
Chen Yun
Zhang Chunqiao*
Others
Yao Wenyuan*
Mao Loyalists
Wang Hongwen
Factory sec guard
(Politburo 1973)*
Hua Guofeng (“Whatever Faction”)

23. Themes in analysis of Cultural Revolution
Challenge norm of civilian control over military “party controls the gun”
9th CCP Central Committee (1969) 45% military
8th CCP Central Committee (1956) 29% military
1975 Mao brought Deng Xiaoping back to reorganize PLA
PLA Chief of Staff
Military Affairs Commission, V.Chairman
Politburo Standing Committee, V. Chairman
Interplay of domestic and foreign policy
Sino-US-Soviet relations
Doctrinal disputes
Soviet threat (Brezhnev Doctrine, border clashes)  bigger PLA or turn to USA

24. Results of Cultural Revolution: Impact on Chinese Communist Party
Organization of CCP undermined
Absence of institutionalized succession processes dramatized
Liu Shaoqi
Lin Biao (Mao’s “close comrade-in-arms” and successor)
Gang of Four
Deng Xiaoping
Legitimacy of CCP undermined

25. Results of Cultural Revolution: Impact on Chinese Society
Youth
Lost educational opportunities
Personal tragedies
By 1971, million “sent-down” youth
Workers (urban residents)
Wages stagnant
Production very inefficient
Farmers (rural residents)
Incomes stagnant
Output per capita flat
Society as whole
Loss of cultural patrimony
Estimated 10 million deaths

26. Any good results from Cultural Revolution?
Broad-based provision of basic needs
Unintended consequences—party/society more open to liberalizing reforms?
Egalitarian starting point for reform
Opportunities for women?—debate

27. Looking Back at the Cultural Revolution
"The dream that we had at that time is not finished. I don't regret that time. We made a sacrifice for our ideals."
— Shanghai Businessman
"The Cultural Revolution was a barbaric and ignorant phenomenon. You couldn't have your own thoughts. If you didn't participate you would be criticized.... It was a Red Terror."
— Retired Government Worker
Source:

28. Cultural Revolution and the study of non-democratic regimes
Lack of institutional checks on political authority readily allows extreme policies
Lack of institutionalized mechanisms to address policy debates, leadership transitions, and mass participation in politics can lead to violence, instability
Risks of violating separation of civilian and military leadership
Undermines military professionalism
Increases threat of military coup, civil war
Demonstration of interplay between domestic politics and foreign policy

29. Totalitarianism defined
Single charismatic leader
Single dominant party
Utopian, forward-looking ideology
State control over all organized activity
Mobilized participation
Popular fear instilled by arbitrary terror